This is the place where six wagon loads of silver stolen by Jean Lafitte from a ship called the Santa Rosa were supposedly dumped, according to HendricksLake.com, a website run by author and independent researcher, Gary L. Pinkerton. He knows more than a thing or two about the present . 3 talking about this. Pinkerton went on to describe how there have been dozens of expeditions and attempts to find buried treasure between Hendricks Lake and the Sabine River. A famous actress said, Legend remains victorious in spite of history. For this one to last over 150 years, the grains of truth have firmly resisted erosion by the progress of historical research and inspection. It was packed with tons of gold and silver. But theres just been this very persistent legend, and so in the late 50s, mid 60s, there were two really big efforts (to locate the treasure), tons of articles in the Watchman about these two different groups searching for it, dredging.. They say this inspired them to reach out to other treasure hunters and hear their stories. Although they attended different universities, Roper reconnected with high school friends Brackston McKnight and Ryan Travis and the three now work together on the project. A heating and air conditioning contractor. Hendricks is an oxbow lake near where Rusk, Harrison, and Panola coun ties meet a few miles north ofTatum,Texas. Somewhere with access to treasure-laden vessels, open coast, and trails and waterways to transport stolen goods. He was reading a book about lost treasure that inspired him to do some digging online, where he found supposed evidence that a ship was lurking underneath the water. Contacts. One person who is still committed to the Hendricks Lake legend is Jacksonville documentary film maker and treasure hunter, Christian B. Roper. Drained Lake Delhi Revealed Some Treasures: One scavenger found 50 antiques, three rings and an old radio in the mud of this lake in Iowa. Numerous springs within and around the lake keep it filled. As a young girl, Diana pushed the plunger to set off dynamite. More than once the crane almost toppled into the water. That historic trail passed just to the east of the lake, with the trail making up two-thirds of the boundary between Rusk and Panola counties. Like everybody else, he tried to find it over and over and over again. 1930, it came up again, 35. And You Thought Feral Hogs Were Bad. I looked into it a little bit in high school and at UT, just on and off. . Texas, I learned, is full of buried treasureor, to be a bit more accurate, full of stories about buried treasures that no one has been able to find. Join the adventures in Beyond Oak Island- Tuesdays at 10PM and summaries and more in depth looks into the many stories of treasure, here at MW! Many came to the lake to drain, dredge, dig, dynamite and scan its murky depths. The crescent-shaped lake is less than a mile long, thirty to fifty yards wide, and twelve to forty feet deep. The information comes from books and treasure hunting Web sites (the best of which are legendsofamerica.com and treasurefish.com). TYLER, Texas (KETK) Legends of buried treasure have fascinated people around the world since time immemorial. The area served as a naval base during the war, and the publication notes that when the Allied forces were approaching, the Nazi's began sinking treasures in metal boxes in the lake . The idea of finding a lost treasure has universal appeal. The total value? There were treasure legends like that all over Texas, he said. Roper himself had first heard the legend when he was a young boy and has returned to it intermittently throughout his life. We need your support because we are a non-profit organization that relies upon contributions from our community in order to record and preserve the history of our state. Christian Roper and Brackston McKnight lay eyes on Hendricks Lake, the alleged locale of sunken pirate treasure. After completing high school in Virginia, she moved to New York City and pursued a career as a model following her entry into a Seventeen cover contest. Is there anything better than the tale of someone discovering a hidden clue, figuring out an obscure reference, finding the final piece of the puzzle, and then discovering a fantastic stash of gold or silver? It led all the way back to an 1884 account where the guy who was the son of the founder of Tatum, Texas in East Texas decided he was going to drain the lake. The silver was never recovered. But to this day, treasure hunters are unswayed. s f a s u . Mary Roger also tells us about how some fishermen much later got an unusual catch in their hoop net when fishing in the Sabine River; entangled in their net were several silver bars. swieser@panolawatchman.com, Stolen treasure, hidden mystery: Tatum-area lake lore focus of movie project. In 1969 an MIT graduate with a degree in electrical engineering and a patent for an underwater device for locating metals motored along the surface of Hendricks Lake in an eight-foot fiberglass boat towing his electronics. And if so is the treasure still there? Jupiter Island. James Bowie went on an expedition to find it. endobj PRIME turn-key restaurant is a landmark of Fort Laud(Former Ernie's BBQ). Larry Holzwarth - May 12, 2018. For Pinkerton, the treasure of Hendricks Lake is its history and the people who have believed in the legend over the years. A Seagoville pharmacist who sailed around the world. Legend holds that the Pirate Jean LaFitte, or in some other versions Santa Anna, left treasure at Hendricks Lake near Tatum. To him it is the Chase and the history. He gave the loot to smugglers who were attempting to transport six wagonloads of silver ingots to St. Louis where the treasure would presumably be minted into coins. hill on the Lakes side, the scans show some promising images. Later, someone else who got high metal readings tried to dynamite the bottom of the lake. On his website, Fenn wrote, "It was under a. Alternate versions of that story have been documented since the 1880s, with variations including that the silver was from Santa Anna and the battle of San Jacinto and that the treasure was in a different location nearby. I once made a scientific study of all the known shipwrecks, from ancient to modern, that occurred off the Texas coast. The Fenn Treasure was a cache of gold and jewels that Forrest Fenn, an art dealer and author from Santa Fe, New Mexico, hid in the Rocky Mountains of the United States. The legend of Hendricks Lake treasure has inspired men to search for it for at least 150 years. Overtime, Roper believes that this information was interpreted to mean that there was treasure in Hendricks Lake. Jean Laffite was a French pirate and privateer born circa 1780. Pictured from left, Gary Pinkerton, Brackson McKnight and Christian Roper. I havent found anything to suggest that a centuries-worth of stories about buried treasure have any credence. This book is the story of those people. Just let me know if you find anything so I can break the story first. Fearing an ambush by Native Americans, they then decided to hide the treasure by pushing it into the muddy waters of the Sabine River. hunt presented by Christian, Rick and Marty offer to send Matty Blake down to In fact, this same story about Lafitte treasure being lost somewhere, was repeated over and over in almost the same pattern from the Gulf Coast all the way up into Arkansas and Missouri.. And he says, Treasure has a way of keeping its secrets. 162 0 obj By The Siberian Times reporter. Gary Pinkerton, True Believers: Treasure Hunters at Hendricks Lake, East Texas Historical Journal 47 (2009). His website is titled True Believers: Treasure Hunters at Hendricks Lake but he is not a true believer himself. [150 0 R 151 0 R 152 0 R 153 0 R 154 0 R 155 0 R 156 0 R 157 0 R 158 0 R 159 0 R] Little Cypress Creek, north of Gilmer, is the site where legend says a cache of Mexican coinage was dumped, according to A Brief History of Upshur County a history book published in 1946. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/hendricks-lake. His body was buried at sea in the Gulf of Honduras. 1``b`5 Y0$ Au`j`H@ 168 0 obj March 11 Saturday Daylight Wasting C-tier . We are a community-supported, non-profit organization and we humbly ask for your support because the careful and accurate recording of our history has never been more important. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. Success! The other big buried treasure legend from East Texas is the story of Little Cypress Creek. By 1810, their successful smuggling operation had been supplemented with piracy. endobj . It is now thought that the money is on the southernmost tip of Padre Island. When one of the recent landowners near the lake sold their property to the mining company, they inserted a treasure clause that reserves the rights to one-half of any treasure trove found on the Property by Purchaser. There will always be true believers in the treasure legend of Hendricks Lake. After getting some readings at the bottom of the lake (Hendricks Lake), two Dallas oilmen actually brought in a giant crane and attached a drag bucket to the cable. The lake is located in the extreme northeastern part of the county along the boundary between Rusk and Panola. People from Texas, Louisiana, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Kentucky, California, and even England wanted to find that treasure. Visibility is nil, so it is a touchy situation. 153 0 obj We report on vital issues from politics to education and are the indispensable authority on the Texas scene, covering everything from music to cultural events with insightful recommendations. Soldiers approach, wagons sunk in Hendricks Lake, an oxbow lake just south of the Sabine River in northeastern Rusk County. The tale basically states Galveston-based pirate Jean Laffite, in the year 1816, plundered a Spanish ship named the Santa Rosa. :icon_scratch: Thanks, Ernie Pickering, a veteran diver, has made it his mission to recover all things odd and ordinary lurking in the lake to keep Georgia families safe. There was an error processing your request. Sometime around 1816,six wagon loads of Spanish silver ingots, allegedly stolen by the pirate Jean Laffite, were being transported through what is now East Texas. The mud is deep on the bottom, and just as help him in his search. None of (the rest) lines up, but 1860s, 1870s, there was enough yada yada to create some story.. The popularity of treasure hunting during this time period was profiled in numerous pulp magazines and news features, and the business of supplying treasure hunters was page one news in the Wall Street Journal. His main focus is on Jean Lafittes treasure, Their father, Barnie Waldrop, was the most active local treasure hunter. It certainly had promise since it was a round piece of wood, like the legend of the wagon sunk in the lake. We had not even known that he had heard of the treasure. Boise County - Near the Nevada state line at Rye Flats, a shipment of newly-minted gold coins . Since that time, many parties and individuals have endeavored to find the Lost Treasure of Hendricks Lake, with searches as early as 1884 and as recently as the 1970s. Hendricks Lake is an oxbow lake one and one-half miles south of the Sabine River and about four miles northeast of Tatum in Rusk County, Texas (32.371864N, 94.493190W). Tyler oilman who partnered with Charles Fitzhugh Grice to do underwater metal detection in 1969. Legend says six wagons full of silver bars were rolled into hendricks lake. But people buy into it, and thats the part thats interesting to me.. On his visits to Hendricks Lake with his son, they got a hit and brought a diver along to search the bottom. And if so is the treasure still there? In the final battle of the War of 1812, Lafitte and his comrades helped General Andrew Jackson defend New Orleans against the British. He maintains websites for Trammels Trace and for Hendricks Lake, as well as social media Facebook groups for both stories. Hendricks Lake, The land was sold sometime in the last 20 years and is now within a restricted mining area. Believed the treasure was in Martin Creek after meeting old Mexicans with a map when he was just a boy. In an interview with KETK, Pinkerton discussed the treasure, or lack thereof, at Hendricks Lake. Christian is not discouraged. Pinkerton also maintains facebook pages Trammels Trace and Hendricks Lake Treasure-True Believers. In the early 1820s, Great Colombia under the government of Simon Bolivar had begun commissioning former privateers as officers in their newly formed navy. The son of Corbett Akins, Brodie grew up with Hendricks Lake as a routine part of his life and still owned that land on the lake until mining began. I dont want to give too much away, but part of the reason that Hendricks Lake may have been incorrectly added to the story is because, I believe, in the late 1830s there may have been something found on a property owned by a man with the last name OHendrick, Roper said. <>/Border[0 0 0]/Contents(Tell us)/Rect[72.0 211.9047 103.6572 224.7953]/StructParent 7/Subtype/Link/Type/Annot>> A brig named Santa Rosa plundered in Matagorda Bay in 1816. To view perks for contributors or to make a donation towards completion of the film, visit www.gofundme.com/sunkensilver. Filmmaker Brackston McKnight uses a metal detector on his property, searching for lost treasure. You have permission to edit this article. The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry. There is a legend surrounding a supposed lost treasure in East Texas, one that filmmaker Christian B. Roper and his team have been researching for a documentary production, Sunken Silver. Some fishermen in the last century pulled several silver bars from those very waters with a hoop net. He is the primary antagonist of season one of National Treasure: Edge of History. The story died down but regained momentum when treasure hunting became popular again in the fifties and when True West magazine printed an article about the long-forgotten silver prompting treasure hunters to flock to Carthage and Tatum. LAKE CHIEMSEE, GOLDEN CAULDRON In Bavaria, in southern Germany, Lake Chiemsee has been the focus of many divers ever since a Nazi-themed gold cauldron, worth more than $560,000, was found there in . <> The open-endedness and lack of conclusion is what attracts Roper to the story today. "My father and his friends shared the Hendricks Lake treasure legend with me when I was very young, perhaps 6 or 7 years old," Roper said. Hobe Sound. Oak Island Treasure Found May 18, 2021 Gagare1952 13.4K subscribers Subscribe 1.2K 292K views 1 year ago Breaking News: My friend John from Oak Island spend his whole life looking for that. So nothing lines up; its just factually, there was no road that would carry wagons at that time. They know its there. That was the story.. The silver was never recovered. Treasure Coast . Well, my beloved fellow Texas readers, though I have no idea whether anything Im about to pass on to you is the slightest bit accurate, here are six of the supposedly great Texas treasures still waiting to be found. Eventually, the Mexicans unloaded the moneygold and silver coinsso they could make an escape. The Lakeview Motel's name is false advertising these dry days. endobj endobj Error! Also join us in the Facebook Group: Beyond Oak Island Treasures for more discussions. THE LEGEND A brig named Santa Rosa plundered in Matagorda Bay in 1816. Here are six of the supposedly greatest Texas treasures still out there. IXK\!%X[CQq tfI&JA PAefQj$9k,HmN}) n1jXb#,L5N_T U7VOn'u[^cW c{*`!+?@6rJQ|n ;fr4a}_OM%)t0 HUn>>IudFn _IXEvFmoj8!~X!HL: They know it. At the age of 25, Jean Laffite was living in New Orleans, operating a warehouse essential to dispersing the goods smuggled by his brother Pierre. The Cherokees started getting their butts kicked. So all these treasure magazines sprung around these treasure hunting, metal detectors, stories about lost mines. endobj The story revolves around oil fields in Texas, USA. The Lagina Brothers, famous for their search for the lost treasure on Oak Island and featured in the show The Curse of Oak Island, now hosts a new show called, Beyond Oak Island. Discovering history is part of the adventure, and that never ends. In 1915 in New Orleans a worker uncovered a chest filled with more than 1,500 doubloons . including dialogue . The show starts with the Lagina brothers, Rick and Marty, sharing how their search on Oak Island opened them up to a world full of mysteries and lost treasures to explore. 149 0 obj The divers do feel some round objects, and a piece is 0000000756 00000 n The dig, which employed 39 Zuni workmen, was conducted from 1917 through 1921 and in 1923, and uncovered approximately 25,000 artifacts as well as human remains. Hendricks Lake is a special place for Roper. Although the lake was searched in the 50s and 60s, nothing was found at that time. True Believers: Treasure Hunters at Hendricks Lake. the new book is available in paperback. Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) When researching Trammels Trace for my last book, I encountered the treasure legend of Hendricks Lake. When I found out theres essentially a documentary, a great one right here in East Texas waiting to be put out there, I was just excited to try to do everything I could to make that happen, he commented. In 1909 members of the United States Geological Survey visited the site, which they described as being unproductive. <<83DDF97377B4B2110A0000A4D0C2FC7F>]/Prev 639425>> They got away with three thousand freshly-minted 1877 $20 gold pieces. In doing the research, I ran across stories about Hendricks Lake, Pinkerton said. Read More about Texas Tea Slot, about Jean Laffites treasure in the Sabine River. Just another myth? The son of the founder of the town of Tatum. Hendricks Lake Barnie Waldrop of carthage was one of the more persistent treasure hunters. The hidden fortunes of the Doan Boys Gang, said to be $2 million at least. . The real story of Hendricks Lake is not the legend alone, it is about the people who believed it fervently enough to put their time and money on the line in the hope of recovering it. Many treasure hunters are convinced the money continues to lie beneath the mud of Little Cypress Creek in Upshur County. Many believe the body of water concealing the silver to be Hendricks Lake near Tatum, although other places have also been examined. In attempting to honor what he perceives to be Fenn's wishes . That lucky treasure hunter who finds where X marks the spot, will become an East Texas legend, just like the treasure they strove to find. Peoples commitment to myths, tall tales and legends is powerful, according to Pinkerton. While Pinkerton believes the lake area should be a park, the reality is Hendricks Lake is no longer accessible by the public as the land surrounding it belongs to private land owners or is being leased by mining companies. ingots were in transport, but the Spanish had set a trap. He built a new kind of sewing machine, and in. It is this tale that Christian wants to follow up on. The story goes that wagon loads of silver Stories are how we interact as people and its how we grow. "I do not know the person who found it, but the poem in my book led him to the precise spot," Fenn writes. 148 0 obj Continue Reading. The lake is located in the extreme northeastern part of the county along the boundary between Rusk and Panola. Tales of pirate booty and Mexican gold have captivated minds for generations, and it all could be closer than you might think. Hendricks Lake near Tatum is now off limits to the public because it is on land owned by a mining company. Barnie was a TV repair man, and he had built this underwater metal detector, like the size of a washing machine. Fire Ants Have Unleashed Chaos in Texas for Decades. 10 Lost Treasures in America Waiting to be Found. Born to an American mother and English father in Knoxville, Tennessee, Hendricks was raised in Portland, Oregon, and Twin Falls, Idaho, where she became active in local theater. To the north of Tatum, in the middle of the forest, lies Lake Hendrix. Sight was acquired & transformed back in 2018 by Anthony Bruno, founder of Anthony's Runway 84 & Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza along wit In a location on the lake, matching the tale, with a sloped One group proposed to use a new divining rod activated with isotopes. When a producer for The History Channel contacted me in early summer, the legend was about to add a new chapter to the story.The Lagina brothers of Oak Island fame were beginning a new series, Beyond Oak Island, and the story of Hendricks Lake was the premiere episode on November 17, 2020.